𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚒𝚗'𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚊𝚍 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍.

Chapter XIV

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐈𝐕

An Odd Evening
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"Surprise!" Everyone shouted.

That surprised Donnie in the worst possible way, his arms flailed around to catch the boxes he had nearly dropped; one being way more fragile then the other.

The three turtles watched patiently as their brother gained stable footing once again, but as soon as Donnie did stabilize himself Mikey rushed over and swung his arms around the birthday boys neck.

"Whatcha got there, Don?" Mikey asked leaning close to inspect the boxes, before he could open the one on top Donnie pulled it out of his reach.

"J-Just a few parts for my next invention and some empty test tubes I found, that's all." He stuttered avoiding Mikey's touch to, hopefully, get the boxes away from everyone before they suspect anything.
"I should put these away, I'll be back in a minute!"

The brothers watched as he quickly walked to his room as Master Splinter entered the main room, a soft smile was on the mutant rodent's face as he watched his second youngest son.

"What's his deal?" Raph asked no one in particular while folding his arms over his chest.

"Maybe he needs a minute 'cause we surprised him that well?" Leo suggested with a shrug.

No one was convinced with his suggestion but didn't question it further; they just wanting to have fun instead of worrying about their brothers life outside of the lair, he'd tell them if it was really important anyway.

From when Donnie came out of his room to the end of the night went according to Mikey's plan; the family played games, ate pizza and there were even a few gifts given; all useless stuff like a candle or a keychain.

When the night was over, and the brothers were heading to their respective rooms, Splinter called his second youngest son to have a chat in private.

"I saw that you came home happier." He stated as he poured tea into his cup. "Did something happen tonight?"

Donnie was very clearly ecstatic and was  waiting to talk about his evening since he had gotten back, he forced himself to take a deep breath before he started ranting to his father.

He talked about how it started and how he had his doubts about James excepting the mutant for who he was and for what he looked like, he talked about how excepting the human boy really was even before he realized who he was helping; Donnie even chuckled to himself when he remembered James' reaction to him just showing up out of nowhere.

And thru it all, Splinter listened, never interrupting with anything more then a hum, indicating how he felt about the story, every so often.

"And then, he talked and talked and talked—I was convinced that his jaw would fall off—not in a bad way of course! It was sort of enduring in a way." Donnie took a short sip of his tea previous to continuing his already long story.

"Oh! And he showed me his room, it was so cool! It had LED lights all over and a lot of balls of string; in fact one of his walls was just stacked with yarn, it was crazy!"

Eventually, Donnie had to take a breath and when he did he saw how Splinter smiled down at him; he was actually listening to every word and fact he had spewed out randomly and enjoyed the information.

Unprompted, Splinters smile became fonder. "You had a very exciting night, my son, I only hope you'll be able to sleep after all of this."

Donnie couldn't help it when the embarrassment flushed over his face in a soft red hue as his father spoke about the energy he had so late, he looked down at his teacup sheepishly and made the liquid twirl in the vessel slowly.

"I would very much like to meet this boy when you are ready to bring him down for a visit."

Donnie didn't expect that, it made him pause all movements just to snap his head up to look back to his sensei who was already looking down to his son.

"You want to meet him?" The turtle has to confirm what he had just heard, it all could have just been in his head after all.

But when Splinter nodded to his question he though about it more and sighed while placing his cup back onto the wooden table.

"He doesn't know you exist." Donatello stated, his eyes squeezing shut. "I kinda told him that I've been alone my whole life in case he was secretly trying to hurt the family in some way." He took a forced breath. "And when I knew I trusted him I forgot all about that lie and forgot to be honest with him about everything."

The room was silent, even the whole lair was silent.

"Is that all?" Splinter asked and when Donnie nodded with his eyes still clamped shut and shoulders tense he continued with a heart warming snicker. "I am sure he will understand when you tell him, the way you speak of him makes me believe he is a compassionate young man."

Finally the turtle let out the breath he had been holding in an exaggerated sigh of relief, he knew—deep down—that his own dad would understand what he did and why he did it.

"Now, off to bed." Splinter demanded. "You need to rest."

All he got was a nod previous to the turtle leaving, and said turtle went to his room exhausted.

He was going to just toss himself onto his bed but thought otherwise when he noticed the boxes he almost completely forgot about, he took time to move them to his desk then later sat down on his bed.

A smile was stuck in place as he took off his elbow and knee pads and stripped the wrappings from around his feet, hands and wrists; in the end the last thing he took off was his mask.

As he laid down to sleep he reminisced about the events about his day, the more the thought about it the more he relaxed and eventually he fell into a deep sleep; his dreams being nothing he'd remember.